This invention relates to starting fluid injection systems for internal combustion engines, and in particular to improvements to such systems which will enable them to operate more reliably on a wider range of engines.
High compression, indirect injection diesel engines are susceptible to a phenomenon known as "ether lock-up". When starting fluid is injected into such an engine and the engine fails to start, on occasion the concentration of starting fluid in the combustion chambers of the engine can reach an excessive level which causes pre-ignition of the starting fluid. When this happens, the engine can be virtually impossible to start until the excess starting fluid has been cleared from the engine.
Excess starting fluid can enter the engine when a starting fluid injection system is allowed to continue to inject starting fluid even though the engine is not running. In the typical starting fluid injection system, a valve actuator is mounted adjacent the starting fluid canister, and this valve actuator is operated to stop starting fluid from flowing out of the canister when the engine fails to start as it is cranked. However, because the typical canister valve is located at a considerable distance from the injection nozzle, the volume of the injection system between the nozzle and the valve is relatively large, and this volume allows an undesirably large quantity of starting fluid to pass into the engine after the canister valve has been closed.
In the past, the problem of ether lock-up has limited the use of starting fluid injection systems in diesel engines of the type described above. It would be an advance in the art if a starting fluid system could be made to operate reliably on such diesel engines with little or no ether lock-up.